Here are some pieces that we can mine for valuable data. Try not to get hung up on a pro or Anti bias seen in the pieces and focus on the facts for our arguments against Antis.
See what else you can find than these tidbits I've pulled.
http://news.yahoo.com/three-charts-...n-gun-deaths-and-mental-health-183025852.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-gun-laws-tend-to-have-the-fewest-gun-deaths/
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...ention-but-are-a-small-share-of-gun-violence/
There are other valuable bits and good graphics for our use.
See what else you can find than these tidbits I've pulled.
http://news.yahoo.com/three-charts-...n-gun-deaths-and-mental-health-183025852.html
But even if you assume that most mass shooters are indeed mentally ill — whether diagnosed or not — mass shootings make up less than 1 percent of all gun deaths in America, according to a study by the Pew Research Center.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-gun-laws-tend-to-have-the-fewest-gun-deaths/
Most gun deaths — more than 60 percent in 2013 — are actually suicides. The president made his remarks in the aftermath of the tragic shooting rampage at an Oregon community college, and so it’s a judgment call as to whether counting suicides is appropriate. After all, Obama wants to thwart mass shootings by enacting universal background checks aimed at people with criminal histories.
Some might argue that it is wrong to exclude suicides from the data, as less access to guns might result in fewer suicides. The data on that is mixed. Gun-related suicides might decline, but studies have shown little connection between suicides and access to guns. A 2004 report published by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that “some gun control policies may reduce the number of gun suicides, but they have not yet been shown to reduce the overall risk of suicide in any population.”
Japan, for instance, has among the world’s most-restrictive gun-control regimes — and yet also has among the world’s highest suicide rates, almost double the U.S. suicide rate.
As we will show below, the numbers change, sometimes dramatically, when suicides are not counted.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...ention-but-are-a-small-share-of-gun-violence/
Mass shootings rivet national attention, but are a small share of gun violence
In all, less than 1% of homicides each year claim three or more victims. In 2010, there were 31,672 deaths in the U.S. from firearm injuries, with the biggest categories being suicide (19,392) and homicide (11,078), according to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data.
The CRS report said, “Mass shootings are rare, high-profile events, rather than broad trends that require systematic data collection to understand.”
There are other valuable bits and good graphics for our use.